Over at Untemplater.com, J. Money issued a challenge to not spend any money outside of the necessary (e.g. groceries and utilities) for 30 days. Well, I’m taking him up on it.
Last year, my wife and I gave up TV and movies for 30 days. The result – we sold our TV afterwards and have loved being TV-free ever since.
So I’m anxious/curious to see what habits and mindsets change for us. This experiment could be a real paradigm shifter for us.
The Dates
We will begin on March 31st at midnight and end on April 30th at midnight.
The Guidelines
- The following expenses are acceptable: mortgage, HOA, utilities, cell phone bill, groceries (see Guideline #2), auto and home insurance, and gas.
- We have a $500 a month grocery allowance. Some of that $500 is on non-essential expenses. So, we are changing that budget to $450 for the month of April.
- Exceptions: A birthday gift for my father and tickets to the Man Expo (I’m just not missing that)
I will report back weekly in a post about how well we are doing and how we are overcoming temptations, which I know there will be many. Heck, I added three books to my Amazon wishlist today.
So have you ever tried living off the bare minimum? Any advice? Let me know in the comments
Yes we did this as a No Spend Month and the results were quite positive. The first time I thought I was going to crave spending on items…but it really helped to clean out the pantry and use that food instead of letting it go to waste.
As my wife and I get ready for our No Spend month, we find ourselves thinking, “Oh no, we should buy that right now because we won't be able to in a few days.” Though I'm betting that the cravings will go away after about a week or so (that's how it was with the TV). Thanks!